Tag: Malaysia Airlines

The remains of two more Malaysian victims who were on board Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 – Shell employee Tambi Jiee, 49, and one-year-old Benjamin Lee Jian Han – have been brought home.

Benjamin’s remains were taken to the Xiao En Bereavement Care Centre in Cheras. He was with his mother – Universiti Malaysia Sabah lecturer Ng Shi Ing, 33 – and aunt Elisabeth Ng Lye Ti, 30, on the aircraft when it crashed in Ukraine on July 17, killing 283 passengers and 15 crew members.

I do not know Benjamin personally and I am very sure that he is one adorable kid who made everyone laugh with joy. I am sure his parents had high hopes on him and of many things that he will do and achieve in his lifetime. Being a father myself, seeing his small coffin somehow left me in tears and I silently prayed that the young Benjamin did not suffer when his life was taken way from him so tragically at this very tender age.

It breaks my heart to know there were innocent young children who had nothing to do with the conflict on the ground be made to pay the ultimate price, just because some monsters had itchy hands on a trigger. We may never bring these monsters to face justice and bring this tragedy to a proper closure but never again we should bear witness to another tragedy like this.

(Will it work or it is going to be RM6 billion down the drain again? This is going to be the last chance for MAS and the people who are managing it. We do not want to see another bailout in 2018! Image source: TheStar)

It is going to leave the economists around the world speechless. It may even cause the rules of economics to be re-written all over again and the geniuses that came up with this brilliant plan will be worshipped as the God of Economy for many years to come.

If you do not know what I am talking about, well, read this first:-

Khazanah Nasional Bhd has unveiled a 12-point plan to enable Malaysia Airlines (MAS) to achieve sustained profitability within three years of de-listing, by the end of 2017.

Its managing director Tan Sri Azman Mokhtar said the plan involved a comprehensive overhaul of the airline.

“At its core, the plan involves the creation of a new company, (NewCo) which will house the ‘new MAS’ and the migration of the right-sized workforce and work practices and contracts into NewCo,” he told reporters at a special briefing at Khazanah headquarters on Friday.

When I talked about re-writing the books on economy, blah, blah, I was not talking about Khazanah’s plans to restructure MAS. They seems to be doing things by the books and whether it will work or not, we will know in the next 3 years. One just hopes that they had identified all the correct shortcomings and have addressed them comprehensively in their plan. In an interview with the first CEO of MAS, it is obvious that there have been some serious bad decisions made in the past and all these must be addressed too:-

Generally, MAS poor performance is due to its wrong business plan and the loss of flight MH370 demoralized the staff and MAS has to handle this. How to do it? MAS must change its business plan. What’s wrong with the plan? The thing that is wrong with the plan is the choice of its routes which it has been plying for the past 15 years.

Those routes are now overcrowded with all the low cost carriers. The market now wants to fly domestic and regional and 80 per cent of air travellers want to fly budget. Only the rich and the businessmen fly full service. So MAS has to do something to capture that 80 per cent market. It has to reshuffle and realign its aircraft fleet. Utilizing Firefly as the main carrier for domestic and regional. The rest, let MAS handle.

And take a second look on the use of the A380. Does MAS really need six of the super-huge aircraft. No need to file for bankruptcy. Don’t be ridiculous.

Maybe in some departments there are a surplus of workers but we have to look at it in totality. We can’t lay off 5,000 workers out of the 20,000 employees which MAS has. It does not have to lay a single worker if it is restructured properly. But we have to take a look at the salaries of some of the management team of which I was told touch more than RM100,000 a month.

Why must they be paid such a huge amount at a time when MAS is in the red and why do you axe workers with low salaries? I question how the board of directors can approve such a huge salary. How did it come to this?

I question why MAS use the A380 which is hardly utilised but cost millions to operate.

Why do we need the six air-crafts? That is one out of a thousand and one issues plaguing MAS. MAS also wants to sell the MRO and the person who proposed it does not know anything about the aviation industry. Engineering plays a huge part in the MAS makeup and plays a vital role in safety, efficiency, integrity and operations.

MAS has to fully control that business and if properly managed can become an income earner. During my time, MAS maintains and services aircrafts from the US, Australia and Canada. MAS made money out of this division. So why do you want to hive off this division to another company and then buy back the service from the very same firm? MAS will bleed even more just like the catering business. Although MAS has a 30 percent stake, it has to pay a high price for the food. MAS can sell a small stake but make sure it still controls MRO. Don’t sell the entire stake.

Umno mouthpiece Utusan Malaysia has given the thumbs up to the comprehensive revamp plan to revive loss-making Malaysia Airlines (MAS), saying that the move to turn the national carrier around will not affect its services.

Awang Selamat, the collective voice of the paper’s editors, said he was confident the national icon would be back in the black in three years, based on stringent regulatory controls over the 12-point plan unveiled by state sovereign fund Khazanah Nasional Berhad yesterday.

“The emphasis on these aspects will have a significant impact on the recovery effort. It also differs from previous efforts which have ended in failure.

“We are also confident such changes will bear fruit and more importantly, the services of the national carrier will not be affected,” he said in the column today.

Yes, firstly use the word “investment” instead of “bailout” to hide the fact that IT IS a bailout. Then tell the whole world that the money spent on the bailout, opps err, investment will be recovered. And continue with the statement that the entity that was put in charge of the bailout, sorry, investment is doing it because they want to make money on the said venture. I wonder how many millions was paid to external consultants to come up with such brilliant idea to substitute a bailout with an idea of investment. Can they for once call a spade a spade? Malaysians are not that dumb, you know?

Then secondly get the editor of a newspaper (that is deep in shit themselves with RM11 million loss), to put on the hat of a learned economist and turnaround specialist to say that the proposed turnaround plan will definitely work and all that will happen in 3 years as promised. And this is despite of many failed attempts to turnaround the national carrier in the past by the same group of people. After all, if the editors are so smart and confident, why the paper is not making money themselves? After all, Khazanah themselves was reported to say this:-

Khazanah, which has injected more than 5 billion ringgit into MAS over the last 10 years, said its new fund injections would be strictly tied to the new company meeting performance targets.

I may be wrong but I think Khazanah’s 100% ownership of MAS will not be much different from its 70% ownership. We are going to see a lot of new people who will receive huge salaries, allowances and bonuses and not much else. That I believe is how Khazanah operates.

Whatever bullshit that will be spinned in the next 3 years, one thing will be sure – the taxpayers need to be prepared for the worse to kiss their RM6 billion (or more in the coming years) goodbye. Unless of course, certain things happens.

The Government through Khazanah must have the will-power and political clout to make real changes that will see the RM6 billion to be spent on the turnaround plan of MAS be recovered with every cents accounted for in 3 years time. They must look beyond the color of the skin when it comes to picking the right people to run the airline (and never this piece of idiotic thinking again) and it should not be limited to Malaysians alone. Priorities must be set right and must be followed strictly.

They must not be swayed with likes of extremists like Perkasa, Pekida, Isma (do I need to say more?), dumb “keris wielding” politicians (who will make noise for the sake of making noise) or inexperienced consultants with unbelievable fat payroll (who may prolong the misery for more fat salary). Otherwise they will end up digging deeper into the taxpayers money for another turnaround plan after 2018.

And more importantly, they must always remember that national pride and the nation’s good name is at stake here and thus no matter what, this turnaround plan must work. No ifs or buts. They must remember that the RM6 billion that will spend on the turnaround plan belongs to the taxpayers (and not from their own personal pockets) and every cent must be accounted for. I hope so they will or otherwise we will talking about another turnaround plan in 2018.

I thought the Dutch had serve justice to the victims of the MH17 crash and nothing will top that off but I was wrong.

The Malaysian Government (yes Najib does look sad this time) may have copied what the Dutch have done but it was worth the final send off & respect before the bodies were passed back to their families for the final good byes.

I drafted something else on MH17 and I worked on it for the past few days but in the end, after witnessing what the Dutch have done, I simply scraped it outright.

(There is a serene peace and quietness when you see these images. Image source: Google)

These images of the Dutch giving the high respect to the bodies of the MH17 somehow shook me and left me in tears. As the hearse passes the overhead bridge, you can hear the claps from the people who have been waiting long for the hearse to pass by. Despite being thousands miles away, I too share the pain and sadness and simply remained in silence and prayed that the victims (a number of them, children) will rest in peace and the monsters who shot down the plane would be found and prosecuted.

Yes, it is a war zone and yes, mistakes may have happened but why the long delays in retrieving the bodies and the black box. Perhaps we can ponder on the another day. In the meantime, one need to salute the Dutch for what they have done, not knowing for sure the nationality of the victims that they are honoring. It did not matter – all in MH17 shared the same fate.

It was heartening when I read this:-

“This is how you honour the dead,” Dutch daily NRC headlined Thursday, contrasting the solemn return to the Netherlands of the first MH17 bodies with the traumatic chaos of the plane’s crash site in rebel-held Ukraine.

The NRC and several other papers printed front page photographs of flowers being dropped from a motorway bridge as the cortege of 40 hearses drove from Eindhoven airport.

Many contrasted the traumatic images of pro-Russian separatists handling bodies and personal belongings following the July 17 crash with the solemnity of the first plane’s arrival and welcome by Dutch armed forces.

“Soldiers wore hats instead of balaclavas,” wrote Thomas de Veen in the NRC daily after Dutch troops unloaded the 40 coffins from two planes.

“At last, a respectful homage,” headlined the AD, with 193 of the 298 people killed aboard the Malaysia Airways flight Dutch.

There is a lesson to be learned from Dutch and I hope that the idiots at this part of the world will drop their short minded thinking and learn something about humanity

For a week, the usual bashing of the Church and the Opposition coalition was suspended, as the whole world mourned the victims of MH17. Now that the remains of the MH17 victims are in the process of being repatriated, troublemakers have resumed the fomenting of dissent and racial strife in Malaysia.

The situation in Malaysia has returned to “normal”. Scare tactics, involving race and religion, are used to distract the rakyat from important matters like rising poverty, increased crime and the economic and financial health of Malaysia. The first shot, to endanger national security was fired by the former Chief Justice (CJ) Abdul Hamid Mohamad.

At a buka puasa event last Monday, Hamid warned that Islam was under threat in DAP led Penang. He warned that the threat to Islam would spread throughout Malaysia.

The timing for Hamid’s announcement is critical. He waited until the world’s interest in MH17 had died down, so he could achieve maximum impact among the rakyat, especially the Malay Muslims.

When we will ever accept that Malaysians of a different skin color, religion and culture at the end of the day are Malaysians too?

When we will ever accept the differences that we have and move on?

When we will ever grow a back bone and show the middle finger to these idiots who are bent on ruining the country out the door?

We had 2 tragedies months apart this year and we had lost 93 Malaysians and they say that when tragedy strikes the nation, everyone gets united and speak with one voice. It is a shame that despite these tragedies, we still act like we are living in a cave, with our brains firmly stuck to our backside, talking about fellow Malaysians on petty matters.

Najib rightly had put the view of the nation when he said “This is a tragic day in what has already been a tragic year for Malaysia”. We have yet to overcome the loss of MH370 and certainly we do no need another tragedy involving our planes. My brother in law is certainly in a shock over the loss – he flew on the route quite often and know personally some of the crew. This has been the second time he had been very lucky by missing out on the 2 routes where MH had gone down.

It certainly has been the case of the plane being at the wrong time and place and unlike MH370, we have the wreck and to some extent, some kind of a closure. We must find the one who pulled the trigger and make them pay dearly (the case already building up on the pro-Russia rebels as being the main culprits). The lost of 295 passengers and 15 crew members is not a small of a matter to be swept under the carpet and called as collateral damage in the on-going conflict.

(Presenting the Prime Ministerrrrrr, no Najib is the PM, oh well, presenting the First Lady of Malaysiaaaa, errr no as well, the Queen is the First Lady of Malaysia…oh never mind. The fact is this is a very very touching moment indeed but it is an overkill to overdo it. Image source: The Star)

Hmmm, you noticed something?

Wait, before that, go ahead and read this:-

Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor hopes that people will stop speculating over the missing Malaysia Airlines (MAS) Flight MH370 out of respect for the families of the passengers and crew of the ill-fated flight.

“Do not speculate as long as there is no verified information. I hope the whole world will give thought to the feelings of the families of the 239 people who were on board the aircraft,” said Rosmah, who is wife of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak.

She said anyone with credible information on the tragedy should come forward to assist efforts to trace the plane which has been missing since March 8. “Don’t throw stones and then hide your hands behind your back (make wild allegations). That’s cowardice, don’t just talk and not provide solutions,” she said during an interview on Bernama TV’s “Ruang Bicara” programme.

We Malaysian probably by now should be immune to these kind of “syiok sendiri” stunt in the national media. To be fair, the Big Momma may have best intentions in her mind for making the statement but imagine if a foreigner read the above statement.

Firstly, there has not been any light at the end of the tunnel on this tragedy and yet here, we are having a politician’s wife to come up on air and telling for anyone with credible information on the tragedy should come forward to assist efforts to trace the missing plane. Pardon my French but doesn’t that sounds simply, idiotic?

Don’t you think that with more than a month lapsed and the search for the missing plane turning out to be one of the largest in history with more than eight countries deploying their money, hundreds of men, numerous satellites, aircrafts, surface ships and submarines covering thousands of the kilometers of deep ocean, wouldn’t anyone with credible information WOULD HAVE COME FORWARD AND OPENED THEIR BLOODY MOUTH BY NOW?

Oh never mind, I know what you are thinking.

Secondly, it gets worse with this:-

Rosmah also shared with the audience about the telephone conversations Najib had with foreign leaders regarding the matter. “Even before he could finish what he wanted to say, many of the leaders straight away informed him of their willingness to help and asked what they could do,” she said.

Gosh, what this means? That she often eavesdrops on the PM’s official phone calls? Or the PM keeps his wife updated on all of his official phones calls with other leaders even though she is not part of his cabinet or his official advisers? Either way, doesn’t this falls in the same category of leaking of Government secrecy as well? Doesn’t that compromises the decision that the PM may make after these phone calls? Perhaps when the next time the US President calls Najib on something sensitive and confidential, he should ask if Najib’s wife is eavesdropping on the conversation.

Then again, who we are kidding here, right? Perhaps for the hardcore BN supporters, this may mean nothing to them – after all, they hardly made noise when the lady flew on Government jet (paid for by taxpayers) for private functions (some jokers were even tried to justify the obvious abuse of taxpayers money), what more of someone eavesdropping on the PM’s official phone calls.

Anyway, let’s leave the circus show back home for a second and let’s come back to the question I asked at the start – “you noticed something?”

You noticed with every one glimpse of evidence or lead that “emerged” to give the world some kind of hope, in the end, it turns out to be nothing and we are back to square one? It was almost like someone throw a bit of bone here and the everyone runs over looking for the meat and nothing is found and then another bit of bone is found else where and the cycle starts all over again. At the end of the day, the real meat is yet to be found.

(Is there more than meet the eyes? Are we getting the truth or lies laced as the truth? Are we been looking at the wrong place? More importantly is the Government telling us the truth? The banner seems to say a different story. Image: Google)

Well, think about it.

At first it was reported that the plane had lost over South China Sea and then someone over at RMAF decided to wake up (this matter seemed to have been quietly closed) and then said that the plane had turned back. So that ends the massive search over the South China Sea – privately pissing off many countries involved in the search. Then there was some days looking for the needle in the haystack over the Indian Ocean before satellite images of “debris” emerged (there was similar claims of debris in the South China Sea as well). And when the surface ships headed to the sites where the debris was thought to be, nothing was found.

Then there were signs of “strong” pings but that too seems to be disappearing into the thin air:-

The latest acoustic signal detected in the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 was unlikely to be from the missing plane and there had been no major breakthrough in the more than month-long hunt, Australian officials said on Friday. Analysis of the signal, captured by a listening device buoy and relayed to an Australian ship on Thursday, was unlikely to be related to the aircraft’s black boxes, Angus Houston, head of the Australian search, said in a statement.

And in reality, with all the NSA satellites up there, satellites so sensitive that they can detect the beeper circuit in a digital watch from outer space, the real time is ZERO. And if this entire charade was real, that is exactly what would have happened. But since it’s all a dog and pony show of fraud, two weeks was the number given because then they could look for a little while and say OH, we will never find it now, the batteries are dead.

The missing Malaysia Airlines jet was “thrown around like a jet fighter” in a bid to dodge radar after it lost contact with authorities, Malaysian military investigators believe. Flight MH370 is thought to have climbed to 45,000ft – 10,000ft above its normal altitude – before dropping to 5000ft and continuing to fly low at high speed, a source close to the investigation told Britain’s Sunday Times.

The drastic manoeuvres required to perform such a sudden drop in altitude suggest the Boeing 777 was deliberately trying to avoid radar signals and vanish, the source said. The new lead adds weight to the theory Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah hijacked his own plane after tricking his co-pilot into leaving the cockpit and then locking the door.

Another speculation? Another wild allegation? The Big Momma must be having sleepless nights reading these “allegations” on the internet.

Somehow this fuels the notion that the plane has been hijacked and it did not crash:-

Flying in the shadow of a similar aircraft is easier than critics make it out to be, he said in a blog entry. Answering objections such as wake turbulence, visual separation, and altimeter interference, he said he’s heard from dozens of seasoned Boeing 777 pilots who agree with him.

This theory faces one glaring problem: where do you land a 348-ton aircraft that requires an 5,000-foot runway in one of the more remote regions of the world?

But other scenarios seem even more unlikely. If a mechanical breakdown had been responsible for the early change in course, the flight would be safe by now or would have crashed in the Gulf of Thailand. (Or would have flown on for many hundreds of miles after a fire killed the crew but somehow left the autopilot and major avionics systems intact, in a Wired.com ‘zombie flight’ speculation.)

Taking this aircraft, whoever did it, would require inside knowledge, a professional’s skill at piloting a Boeing 777 — and a complex motive. Anyone like this, the reasoning goes, would have a destination in mind. Intending suicide or ransom, he could have gone to Beijing as scheduled or returned to Kuala Lumpur without attracting notice, or even gone to any of the cities of Southeast Asia or Australia. He could have simply crashed into the sea. But instead, he did something that required him to fly to the west.

The case of a missing plane is no laughing matter but then again, seeing this image on Facebook reminds me of the need for Malaysian politicians who intending to be Ministers and Deputy Ministers to have the right qualifications, knowledge and attitude when the shit does hit the fan.

They should never handle a huge global issue as if it was domestic politics. I am sure that Hishammuddin Hussein, when he took over the portfolio on a temporary basis (after MCA had declined to take up any Government post), would not have expected for a plane to go missing under his watch. No one did. Todate, he has been doing his duty rather well and as expected of a Transport Minister except for that time when he screwed up things by not inviting the Pakatan MPs for a briefing on MH370 and then coming up with the usual dumb excuse.